


Cookie Tornado

by talitha_koum2c479



Category: New Girl
Genre: Baking, Friendship and Fluff, Gen, Ice Cream, Messy kitchen, Pink Wine, Thoughtful Nick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 18:54:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25680175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talitha_koum2c479/pseuds/talitha_koum2c479
Summary: Prompt (given from a fluff generator): Nick bakes Jess cookies. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned.
Relationships: Jessica Day/Nick Miller
Comments: 1
Kudos: 32





	Cookie Tornado

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I just finished watching New Girl last week. Been thinking of some fun one-shots to write in between my Spiderman series. Here's one fluff piece I wrote for Nick and Jess. Hope you enjoy!

The kitchen counter was caked in goopy globs of raw egg, clumps of sugar and flour, and spilled milk and vanilla. The smell of burnt dough permeated the entire kitchen and floated into the bedrooms. Nick was waving a broom at the smoke detector, which was blaring its painfully shrill warning of smoke in the air, when Jess walked into the loft. Nick looked at her like a kid who had just been caught with his hand in a cookie jar... or, like a grown man who had tried to bake his roommates a batch of delicious cookies but had failed spectacularly on all fronts. 

"Nick?" Jess called, placing her keys in the key bowl and dropping her school back and lunch to the floor. "What is going on?"

Jess stepped into the kitchen to get a good look at the damage. It seemed a tornado had run through the room and exploded baking supplies and cookie ingredients across the entire room. Dirty dishes filled the sink and were spread across the counters in small mountains. Half-opened bags of chocolate chips and almonds had fallen to the ground and clearly been stepped on, with footprints of melted chocolate, almond crumbs, and flour across the entire kitchen floor. The stove top and counters held two cookie pans, one with dough so raw it seemed to run together and form a lake, the other so burnt that Jess thought Nick must have placed little pieces of coal in the oven to bake. The oven was open, revealing a third batch of cookies still in the oven, charred and smoking. 

Nick, himself, was wearing one of her purple aprons that said, "Teaching is my jam," a gift from Winston for one of Jess's teachers’ appreciation weeks a couple years ago. He stood frozen on a chair with the broom held above his head and watched Jess walk further into the kitchen and slowly scan the kitchen in horror. 

"Nick?" Jess said again, voice quiet and firm. Nick gulped. "You have ten seconds to explain what the hell is going on in here. You better get started." 

"I screwed up?" Nick said. 

Jess scoffed. "Is that a question or a statement?"

"I don't know," Nick said sheepishly. The alarm continued to blare above them. 

Jess shifted into action. "Well the first step, dummy, would be to take the burning food out of the oven and open the damn windows," Jess grabbed the nearest oven mitt and pulled out the pan, immediately dumping the burnt dough into the garbage and placing the hot pan on top of one of the other pans. She turned off the stove and hurried to the windows, pushing them open to allow some fresh air into the loft. 

"Can you reach the alarm to disconnect it?" Jess asked, turning back to Nick, who remained standing on the chair. 

Nick shook his head. "I didn't even know the damn thing worked. We haven't replaced the battery since we moved into the loft, because it's too high up and we need the landlord to bring a ladder up for us. Believe me, I was shocked when the alarm went off." 

Jess rolled her eyes. "This is why women live longer than men," she muttered to herself. "Well, get down. We need to give some time for fresh air to get into the loft. You can turn on a couple fans, if you can find them." 

"This is what we used to do when I was growing up and the alarms went off," Nick hopped off the chair. 

A couple minutes later, the loft was much cooler and the alarm had finally subsided. Jess rubbed her forehead and took a seat at the table, staring absently at the kitchen. Nick pulled his chair up to the table and joined her. 

"There's an explanation, I swear," he started. Jess waited silently. "It's just... you love baking, and desserts, and I thought since you always make us delicious cookies and cupcakes and cakes, maybe once you'd appreciate it if someone made you dessert. I looked up an easy recipe online this morning, and went grocery shopping, and tried to make a batch, and that one didn't work, because the dough was too thin and watery. Then I tried another batch, which turned out better, but I left in in the oven too long. Now I'm on batch three, and I thought I had finally figured it out, but..." Nick waved halfheartedly at the kitchen mess. "As you can see, the third batch didn't turn out as well as I hoped. And the mess, well, that just compounded on itself as I worked, I didn't even notice how messy and chaotic the kitchen looks until you walked in the door." 

Jess sighed and rubbed her head again. "Nick that's... that's sweet." 

"I'm so sorry, Jess, I basically destroyed the kitchen, I know, and I'll clean every inch, I promise."

"It's ok, Nick," Jess said quietly, still looking at the kitchen. "I can help you, if you give me a couple minutes to get changed."

Nick frowned at Jess. Something seemed wrong; Jess looked tired and defeated. "I've got it covered, Jess, but you're welcome to join me. I can pour you a glass of wine and prep a bowl of ice cream for you. You look like you could use a pick-me-up." 

Jess finally smiled. "Thanks, Nick, that sounds great." She headed over to her room and closed the door behind her. 

Once she was out of sight, Nick grabbed a wine glass and some pink wine out, poured Jess and generous cup, and then added a black straw. He dished several large scoops of ice cream into the biggest clean bowl he could find and covered the entire dish with as much whipped cream as he could, then poured chocolate syrup on top. By the time Jess got back, Nick had the wine and ice cream prepped and a small section of counter space cleared for her to sit and relax. 

Jess had changed into pajamas and had come out wrapped in a soft, fluffy blanket. She settled onto the bar stool and took a sip of her wine. Nick, satisfied that she was comfortable, started washing some of the dirty dishes in the sink and placed them in the drying rack. 

"Too bad the dish washer is broken," Jess said wistfully. "Cleanup would be so much easier if you could just place everything in the washer and turn it on." 

Nick pretended to glare at Jess and waved a sudsy sponge at her. "Don't you start that again. We are not calling Remy up here. You remember what happened last time. Do you really want to risk a threesome again?"

Jess laughed and rolled her eyes. "Of course not, but you have to agree that a working dishwasher would be wonderful." 

Nick shrugged. "I don't cook or bake much, and most my food is takeout, so I don't need the dishwasher much anyway." 

"Except when you make cookies explode in our kitchen."

"Yeah, I suppose." Jess fell quiet again, and Nick let the kitchen fall into a comfortable silence as he continued washing and drying dishes. He was determined to find out why Jess was acting so strange, but he also wanted to give her a moment to herself. He tried to think of something light-hearted he could say to make her laugh again. 

"Did I ever tell you about the time Schmidt and I tried to bake cookies back in college?"

Jess shook her head. 

"Well, Jess, you'll appreciate this. See, I was trying to do the same thing I was trying to do today: impress a girl. And, just like I did today, I failed. Spectacularly. Our dorm building had a common kitchen area, with an oven and a fridge and some cabinet space and counters for residents to cook their own meals. There was this hot girl, Jasmine, who I had a major crush on, back when I was still a sophomore. We shared a couple classes, and I tried to become her friend, but she didn't give me the time of day. I eventually figured out when her birthday was, and I decided to bake her a birthday cake. The plan was to bring it to class the following week, and she'd realize she loved me and wanted to date me because of my amazing baking abilities." 

The front door opened again, and Schmidt made his way into the kitchen. "Nicholas Sean Miller!" he screamed. "What have you done to my kitchen! This is an absolute monstrosity!"

Nick, for the second time that evening, found himself frozen and searching for words to explain himself. "I was trying to bake cookies, and I didn't quite succeed. But I'm cleaning it up! Ask Jess!" 

Jess nodded and took another sip of wine. "He's been washing dishes ever since I got home, Schmidt, he's really trying. Good SAT word, though." 

Schmidt scoffed and picked up one of the pans still sitting on the oven. He dumped the charred remains in the trash and continued organizing the counter space. "I don't trust you, Nick. You wash the dishes; I'll clean everything else." 

"If you say so, Schmidt. I was just telling Jess the story of that time in college when we tried to make Jasmine a cake." 

"Oh, you mean that time we set off the fire alarms and the-"

"Spoiler alert, Schmidt!" Nick interrupted quickly. "As I was saying, I was going to try to bake her a cake. I looked up a recipe, went shopping, and brought all the ingredients, a cake pan, three different colors of frosting, plastic bags and a set of those little things you put in piping bags to make the frosting different shapes'-"

"Piping bags and tips," Schmidt said helpfully.

"Whatever, I brought them all to that little community kitchen we had. I convinced a friend to let me borrow her mixer and bribed Schmidt to helping me by offering him the answers to his next Stats exam." 

"I failed that exam, if anyone's wondering," Schmidt grumbled. "You gave me the wrong answers. I spent all that time memorizing the letters to 100 questions, and every single answer was wrong." 

"He didn't even spell his name correctly on the exam paper, so the prof didn't know who to give the zero to," Nick whispered to Jess. She giggled softly, and Nick counted that as a victory. "Anyway! So, Schmidt and I are in the kitchen, everything in hand, and we started making the cake, everything seems to be going smoothly, we get the cake in the oven and turn it on. Then we went back to our dorm room to wait for it to finish baking." 

"That was a mistake," Schmidt said. 

"It was," Nick agreed. "We forgot to set a timer and left the cake in the oven for almost an hour."

"No!" Jess said, laughing.

"Yup," Nick said, popping the 'p'. "And wouldn't you know it, but the fire alarms went off in the entire building, prompting an evacuation, and the sprinklers went off in the kitchen and common area. We ran into the kitchen to try to save the cake, but it was too late." 

"Jackson tore us a new one," Schmidt said. "Our RA. Boy, was his pissed. So were all the other residents, considering this was all taking place at three in the morning. Residents were walking out of the building with blankets and slippers. The fire department had to come and clear the building so that everyone could come back in. They told us the cake had somehow caught on fire, and the kitchen had to be shut down and renovated. No one could use it for almost an entire month. And even after it was fixed, we all had to attend mandatory floor meetings about proper kitchen etiquette and the rules of the common areas." 

"Jasmine never did get her birthday cake," Nick said. 

Jess laughed, "Well, at least one of you has improved in your baking abilities." 

"Why, thank you, Jess!" Schmidt exclaimed. 

"Of course, Schmidt," Jess smiled. 

The two men continued cleaning the kitchen, and Jess poured herself another cup of wine. She had finished the ice cream, and Nick offered to take the empty bowl and spoon away so he could wash them. 

"Hey, Jess, how was your day?" Nick asked, trying to sound casual. Jess sighed, and her face fell. Nick almost wished he hadn't asked, but he was dying to know. 

"I had an observation in one of my classes today," Jess said. "Let's just say, it could have gone better. I also got an email from a parent complaining about his daughter's bad grade--she's a smart kid, she just doesn't put in effort, and it shows in her grades. Then we had a fight break out in the cafeteria, and a fire drill interrupted a great debate we were having on whether or not homework should be banned. Overall, it was just a long, rough day." 

"Sounds like it," Schmidt said sympathetically. "I see Nick hooked you up with some sweets to make up for some of it." 

"That he did," Jess smiled. "Thanks again, Nick, this has been a nice way to end the day." 

"Of course, Jess. Anytime." 

"Nick, next time you want to make cookies, let me know. I'd be happy to help, give you some tips and pointers. We can make them together." 

"Teacher Jess, to the rescue!" Schmidt said, wiping down the counter and the stove. The kitchen was now cleaned and nearly reaching the high standards of organization Schmidt held for his cooking space. "Nick, you are required to have supervision in the kitchen for the foreseeable future."

"Fair," Nick nodded. "I understand completely, staying out of the kitchen from now on." 

Schmidt checked his phone and saw an unread message from Cece. "Dammit, Nick, you made me late for my date! I have to go." 

Schmidt ran out of the loft as abruptly has he had come into it. "Wanna join me on the roof for a bit? We can bring the wine and some beer," Nick asked Jess. 

Jess smiled. "Miller, are you asking me on a date?" 

"What if I am, Day?" 

"Then I say, let’s go. Bring on the wine," the two made their way upstairs to finish the evening with a romantic night together.

**Author's Note:**

> Love comments and kudos, so let me know what you think!


End file.
